The Dark Tower Series

 Like many (most) of the Gen-X generation, I've read almost everything Stephen King wrote up until around the early 2000's. And that includes the Dark Tower series. Which may have killed some of my enthusiasm for his books.

But it isn't all bad. And there are some great ideas in it. A tiny bit of the Gunslinger roleplaying game may have even gotten some inspiration from it.

On the ODD74 forum Finarvyn (of Swords & Wizardry White Box fame) asked what people thought about The Dark Tower series, if it was worth reading. It got me to thinking, and I wrote up my opinion. Which fairly reflects many reader's views of the story with some of my own idiosyncrasies. Here is what I had to say.

The Dark Tower has the best, and worst, of King's writings.

1. The Gunslinger: ok start, but not great. Establishes the bleak world setting which I kind of like.

2. The Drawing of the Three: pretty good, but still kind of meh. The characters assembled here are interesting and make the book worth reading.

3. The Wastelands: Getting better. Overall this book is quite a ride (figuratively, and literally in the story), what a cliffhanger.

4. Wizard and Glass: one of the best books King has ever written, high point of the series.

4s. The Wind Through the Keyhole: optional, he wrote this after completing the series. It is ok. It is sort of 3 short story ideas King had that he wrapped into one novel.

5. Wolves of the Calla: I might have liked this better if he hadn't given the story away in the forward. It is a storyline that has been done to death by others, and better, so I really didn't care for this book at all.

6. Song of Susannah: Holy Guacamole is this book terrible.

7. The Dark Tower: I didn't think he could write a worse book than Song of Susannah, but this just might be. He uses a device no author should ever use (no spoiler). What a disappointing end to the series. A real shame because there are a handful of great ideas amid a lot of drek.

While I can recommend about 3 books in the series, you kinda have to read the whole series if you're going to commit. I suspect you could read Wizard and Glass on its own and just enjoy this weird western.

If I was to read this series again I'd just stop after Wizard and Glass. I mean you'd want to know about the Dark Tower, but that's probably best left as a JJ Abram's mystery box than what King did with it.

If you loved the Dark Tower, and many do, that is great. I wish I could have loved it, I really wanted to. And there was much in it I did really like. And if I was to run a Dark Tower campaign, to plug my own RPG, I do think Gunslinger would be perfect for it.

On a side note, there have been several graphic novel adaptations of The Dark Tower, all of which I think are fantastic. I'd even recommend them over the novels!